The search for the next habitable, Earth-like planet is on, and Julien de Wit is pushing it forward by developing and applying novel techniques to study planets around other stars than our Sun. De Wit’s goal in identifying extrasolar habitats is finding clues that could point to the conditions necessary to support life.

In 2011, De Wit used signals collected by the Spitzer Space Telescope to develop a technique that “maps” far away exoplanets and reveals details about their climate and physical composition. Recently, since collaborating in the discovery of the complete TRAPPIST-1 system thought the atmospheric characterization of its planets, De Wit’s efforts have been focused on establishing a network of telescopes on Earth to foster the search of new potentially habitable TRAPPIST-1-like systems.